As is known in the art, whether occurring in water, air or in the ground, explosive events are typically characterized by a propagating shock wave having a peak pressure that diminishes exponentially with distance from the point of explosion. Measurement of the peak pressure is difficult and/or expensive to achieve because the width of an explosion-created shock wave is very narrow in width. For example, a typical explosion-created shock wave in air has a pulse width on the order of 3 millimeters and, in water, has a pulse width on the order of only 1 millimeter. The measurement portion of mechanical pressure gauges is typically larger than this pulse width thereby making such gauges incapable of accurately measuring the peak pressure. Electronic pressure gauges, although more accurate than the mechanical gauge, are more expensive.
Further, both mechanical and electronic gauges are only capable of measuring pressure at a point. However, when studying explosive events, it is frequently necessary to know what happens to the peak pressure of the shock wave at a variety of locations away from the point of explosion. Unfortunately, the expense of using a plurality of mechanical or electronic gauges causes the cost of measurement to increase dramatically.